Eugene Shoemaker was the greatest authority in the field of impact craters - on the Moon and on Earth
Avi Blizovsky
The Lunar Prospector spacecraft was headed for a crash on the surface of the moon yesterday shortly before 13:00 a.m. EST, 650:XNUMX p.m. NASA time. A NASA spokesman said that the crash of the spacecraft weighing about XNUMX kg was actually a controlled dive into a crater the size of a small city, near the south pole of the moon. The scientists are now examining the photographs of the event taken by telescopes on Earth and the Hubble Space Telescope to try and find signs of frozen water that, according to the findings of that spacecraft itself, should be found there.
David Morse of the Isles Research Center in California, a member of the spacecraft's control team on behalf of NASA, said that there are still no outward signs of a crash, but scientists have no reason to assume that the crash failed.
"It will take many more hours and maybe days before we can get more indications, says Morse. We have so far not been able to see a single plume of material blown from the crash. Hydroxyl fragments or water vapor will be the reason for the spacecraft actually landing in the intended place - inside the ice field.
If the existence of water on the surface of the moon is indeed proven, it will be a discovery
very important and has many consequences for science and the settlement of the moon in the future.
The fact that for hours after the crash no signs of water vapor were found, may serve those who doubt the chances of success of the crash to prove their existence. The skeptics point out that what the prospector actually found in the past was hydrogen, and that there is no guarantee that the hydrogen atoms on the moon actually indicate the presence of water.
Two scientists from Stanford University, Von Eschelman and George
Parks, argued in a letter published in the scientific journal "Science", that there is a greater probability that the spacecraft will collide with concrete-like minerals than with lunar ice. If there is water on the moon, claims Eshlman, it is most likely in the form of some type of crystalline minerals that contain water molecules, but the bonds between them are very tight and a very high temperature is needed to break these bonds and remove water from them
usable.
Among the scientific instruments that filled the spaceship was one metal vial the size of a lipstick. This vial was filled with the ashes of astronomer, geologist and near-astronaut Eugene Shoemaker.
In doing so, he set a precedent by being the first person to have his ashes actually buried on another world outside of Earth. This is different from burial services provided in orbit around the earth (see box).
Shoemaker was also one of the world's greatest experts in the field of impact craters on the moon and in general on all bodies in the solar system - craters created by impacts of asteroids and comets. After his death in a car accident in July 1997, his ashes were placed in the metal container and placed on the spacecraft before launch.
Shoemaker and his wife Caroline, who was also seriously injured in the same accident, discovered about twenty comets and about 800 asteroids. The most famous comet was Shoemaker-Levy 9 which the couple discovered together with another amateur astronomer - David Levy, and which crashed on July 18, 1994 with great force and after disintegrating into 21 fragments on the planet Jupiter in what is still considered to be the most important astronomical event of the nineties .
In fact his death was related to his work. He was killed inside one of the craters, to the investigation of which he dedicated his life. The couple arrived in Australia about two weeks ago. They set out to look for asteroid craters across the continent.
He was among the leaders warning governments of the danger of
Asteroid crashes on Earth, to the point of harming the human race, as happened about 65 million years ago, when a large asteroid landed near Yucatan in Mexico and caused chain reactions all over the world that put an end to the 100 million year reign of the dinosaurs.
And as if to illustrate his warnings, they announced at the end of the week
Scientists, including from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that the chance of an asteroid colliding with the Earth, although a relatively minor collision that will cause mainly local damage, in the next hundred years is 1:3.
Schumacher's great dream was to examine the rocks of the moon, but a medical problem prevented him from becoming an astronaut, so he had to settle for training on Earth the 12 humans who were privileged to step on our heavenly neighbor. Now he does so in a sense, posthumously.
Boxa - the space as a cemetery
Shoemaker was the first person to be buried in another celestial body, and ironically also the first person to land on the moon in 25 years, however a burial service in "nearby" space is already being performed, although not with high frequency in the past two years and for profit purposes.
The company CELESTES BURIAL SERVICES began operating innovative funeral services in 1997: it flew the remains of the ALSD guru, Timothy Leary, and the author of the scripts of the "Star Trek" series Gene Roddenberry into outer space. For $4,800, the company is ready to launch into space, in rockets of the Pegasus (missile sent from the bottom of an airplane) or Theorus, a sample weighing seven grams of the ashes of the customer's body. The remains will circle the earth for several years before the rocket returns to the atmosphere and will be completely burned together with the ashes of several dozen of the company's customers.
From a cluster of news - IOL
31/7/1999
Astronomer Eugene Schumacher, the first person to be buried on another planet Thirty years after the first man walked on the surface of the moon, this happened today (Saturday), when the ashes of the well-known geologist and astronomer Eugene Schumacher, placed in the American satellite, "Lunar Prospector", were scattered across the star.
The satellite, moving in its orbit around the moon, crashed on the planet today in a move designed to try and prove the existence of water on the moon, according to the announcement of the American space agency, NASA. Experts hope to find signs of water molecules in the dust and debris cloud created as a result of the satellite crash, and will use technological means to test their assumptions.
"Lunar Prospector", activated its engines to crash on the surface of the moon at a speed of 6,000 km/h, inside a crater between 50 and 60 km in diameter, which scientists believe has ice at the bottom. Schumacher's big dream was to examine the rocks of the moon, but a medical problem prevented him from becoming an astronaut, so he had to settle for training on Earth the 12 people who were privileged to set foot on the surface of the planet.
In 1993 Schumacher discovered the comet "Schumacher-Levy", together with his wife Caroline and his colleague David Levy. Schumacher died on July 18, 1997, intending to fulfill his longtime dream of reaching the moon, thus becoming the first person to be buried on another planet.
Eugene Shoemaker - Long nights in front of the stars
Eugene Shoemaker, the discoverer of the comet that crashed into Jupiter in '94, dedicated his life to the study of asteroid craters. Last week he died in one of them
By: Blizovsky Avi
Date: 24 / 07 / 1997
Inside one of the craters, to the investigation of which he devoted his life, died last Friday Eugene Shoemaker, who was a partner in the discovery of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which crashed into Jupiter in 1994. His wife Caroline, also an astronomer, was moderately injured when their car collided head-on with another car . The couple arrived in Australia about two weeks ago. They went looking for asteroid craters across the continent, a job they devoted long periods of their lives to, says astronomer Edward Bewell of the Well Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Caroline Shoemaker worked.
The couple and their colleague David Levy discovered the comet in March 93 during an observation from the Mount Plumer Observatory in California. Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up into about 20 pieces due to the influence of Jupiter's gravity. These pieces fell one after the other on Jupiter for several weeks in July 94. The contact of the comets with Jupiter provided scientists with the first opportunity to see a comet crashing towards a planet in real time. During the collision, the Hubble Space Telescope, which had been renovated not long before, managed to take a series of spectacular images showing the bruised Jupiter.
In August '95, the American space agency submitted to Congress a report of a committee that dealt with objects close to the Earth and threatening it. The report recommended investing concentrated resources ($24 million, for five years) in increasing the monitoring of such objects and the detection of new ones. The committee was chaired by Shoemaker, who is considered an expert on comet crashes and asteroids crossing the Earth's orbit. He, his wife
And other partners discovered and named dozens of comets. The couple also discovered more than 800 asteroids.
"Shoemaker is one of the great discoverers of planetary science," says Bowell. "He more or less developed the field of crash damage himself, and led other scientists, as well as the public, to recognize the danger of comets and asteroids hitting the Earth.
Shoemaker was also involved in several American space missions, including the Apollo missions to the moon. Before the astronauts left the earth, he taught them the secrets of the craters on the moon."
Shoemaker was a candidate for an astronaut job, Bewell says, and was turned down due to medical issues. "It seems that this was the biggest disappointment of his life." In an interview in February '96 with the magazine "Sky and Telescope" Shoemaker said that he hopes to win manned flights to the nearest asteroids, "but I don't think I will live until we get to Mars in a manned spacecraft", he said.
Prof. Uri Zamir from the Department of Geophysics at Tel Aviv University knew the Shoemaker couple. "Shoemaker is a geologist by profession and an amateur astronomer, but he actually expanded his field of activity to include studying the geological structure of the planets, asteroids and comets. He was one of the first to warn against the danger to the human race from the impact of heavenly bodies on the earth. Although the frequency of impact by such bodies is small, when a body a few kilometers in size hits the Earth - it may throw the ecosystem out of balance, as happened 65 million years ago, when a comet about 10 km in size caused a change
global climate, to throw the system out of balance and to the extinction of many species of animals, including the dinosaurs".
Shoemaker's discoveries added significant and extensive knowledge to the field. As an amateur astronomer he spent long nights watching the sky looking for new bodies, something that professional astronomers rarely do. He also specialized in investigating the issue of craters on Earth, a field that has been quite neglected and in which only visible craters have been studied, says Zamir.
Shoemaker studied these craters to assess the impact force of the asteroid that created them. He died in one of these craters. "Schmeiker had a well-developed sense of humor and was a pleasant conversationalist. His areas of interest were very broad, and went beyond the scope of his direct professional occupation. Unlike most scientists, he was interdisciplinary in nature." He was 69 years old when he died.
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